Noah Dobson or Evan Bouchard?

[geebster]

I regret to inform Quinn Hughes and Cale Makar that because they have more second assists than first assists that they suck.

Context matters. With Hughes there is no question he's the one driving play. He has the puck on his stick more than any other player in the league and is by far the best player on his team, and often on the ice.

Having watched a ton of Oilers games this year... I really don't think Bouchard is driving the bus offensively. He fits what EDM does perfectly and he's probably underrated by non Oilers fans but he's not play driving the way Hughes or Josi does, nor does he have to.

 

[ChaoticOrange]

Context matters. With Hughes there is no question he's the one driving play. He has the puck on his stick more than any other player in the league and is by far the best player on his team, and often on the ice.

Having watched a ton of Oilers games this year... I really don't think Bouchard is driving the bus offensively. He fits what EDM does perfectly and he's probably underrated by non Oilers fans but he's not play driving the way Hughes or Josi does, nor does he have to.

Except his numbers away from McDavid are almost as good as his numbers with him.

Bouchard will always be seen as McDavid's "Letang" but he's criminally underrated.

 

[stl76]

Dobson is a RHD. NYI has Pullock as their top defensive RHD don't they?
Surprised at Dobson's offensive numbers. Seems to have been a tradeoff between offense/defense for him based on his draft writeup.

An isles fan can probably provide more context than I can, but I believe Pulock has dealt with injuries this year. Pulock has averaged 22:33 per game for 58 games this year vs 24:31 and 79 for Dobson.

I agree, which Bouchard is the #1 RHD on the team and played the most minutes on the team, including ES minutes

Bouchard averaged 23:00 per game vs 24:31 for Dobson.

According for puckiq, Bouchard played 31.2% of his TOI against elite competition vs 41.2% for Dobson.

Bouchard had a 5v5 oZS% of 60.3% vs 51.0% for Dobson.

Bouchard does not PK, he’s 6th among oilers D averaging 0:20 a game vs 1:06 for Dobson.

Usage and deployment MATTERS when evaluating dmen.

 

[Fourier]

You can't be serious lol. Bouchard gets to play with McDavid. Who does Dobson play with? By that logic Tyson Barrie must've been some elite defenseman too

Would you say the same about Cale Makar since he plays with MacKinnon?? Or is it actually possible that a player can play with a great player and still achieve things on his own.

 

[TheNumber4]

Bouchard is the new Draisaitl circa 2016. In that non oilers fans are sleeping on how good he is and when he becomes the superstar that he is, lots of these people will look silly.

 

[TheSecondSeason]

Bouchard is more dynamic than Dobson. What Dobson has on Bouchard is he is slightly a faster skater and slightly better defensively. Stickhandling, Passing, Shot, offensive awareness all go to Bouchard.

 

[wetcoast]

An isles fan can probably provide more context than I can, but I believe Pulock has dealt with injuries this year. Pulock has averaged 22:33 per game for 58 games this year vs 24:31 and 79 for Dobson.


Bouchard averaged 23:00 per game vs 24:31 for Dobson.

According for puckiq, Bouchard played 31.2% of his TOI against elite competition vs 41.2% for Dobson.

Bouchard had a 5v5 oZS% of 60.3% vs 51.0% for Dobson.

Bouchard does not PK, he’s 6th among oilers D averaging 0:20 a game vs 1:06 for Dobson.

Usage and deployment MATTERS when evaluating dmen.

These are fair points but what about team structure?

The NYI are built on defensive systems and both of these players have different strengths and weaknesses.i voted for Bouchard because of the rarity of his offensive skills but I have no problem with those voting for Dobson here as their overall impact in a vacuum isn't that far apart.

 

[Despote]

Bouchard. Compare their playoff numbers it isn't even close.

 

[Cup or Bust]

I would go with Bouchard although playing on the Edmonton Oilers and having Ekholm as your partner is a massive advantage. We have no idea how Dobson would perform under the same circumstances. I believe Bouchard would struggle defensively on the Islanders in Dobson's role but it's all speculation. Before he got to play with Ekholm and got more 5 on 5 time with McDavid he struggled pretty bad defensively. Based on actual performance I would have to go with Bouchard for now though, but both have good skillsets.